IDENTITY AND RECOGNITION

Evening Star, Issue 22595, 12 March 1937, Page 6

IDENTITY AND RECOGNITION

NOT THE SAME THING PROBLEMS OF THE HUMAN COUNTENANCE A millionaire proprietor of a chain of stores in America once observed that his success was due to the fact that he never forgot a face—or a name, says Mr Henry T. F. Rhodes, in the ‘ Listener.’ People like to be remembered.There are exceptions to this rule; but the American was thinking of customers, not criminals. Doubts about recognition may result in major tragedies. At the present moment there is a child in an excellent private school in England whose life has been blighted because her mother cannot recognise her. In the nursing home where she was born the mother declares that the .children were mixed up, and that the child is a changeling. The child lacks nothing, except parental affection ; and her.«notional life has been gravely affected, perhaps for life. In this strange ana tragic dispute both parties are convinced that they are right. In maternity hospitals babies wear a batiste wristlet which is never removed. It bears the mother’s full name. But to avoid the possibility of a dispute perhaps something more ought to be done. The ideal solution would be finger-printing. Finger-prints are unique for the individual from the sixth month of intra-uterine life until death.A hospital record of finger-prints would be an infallible check in cases of dispute. Ideal though it is, it is not a practical solution of the problem of everyday recognition. It is not practicable to finger-print remote acquaintances and make the necessary comparison on next meeting them. And it might be dangerous even if it were. In a last resort we have to rely upon inspection of the human countenance. . Can we be sure, in all circumstances, of recognising anyone? The question, prima facie, may sound absurd, and a negative answer fantastic. But that is the truth of the matter. Two years ago a woman in Lyon identified a man who had been run over as her husband. Overcome with grief, she was taken home by a kindly police matron to find her husband calmly smoking a cigarette and reading the day’s ‘Matin.’ There might have been, a commonplace explanation—namely, that the two men were alike. But in life they did not resemble each other in the least. It was only in death that the*face of the victim came to resemble that of the survivor. In death muscular control ceases and produces apparent changes in the structure of the face. In this, instance the alteration caused the face of the dead to approximate to that of the living. But it is possible to eliminate , a food many ' of our errors and doubts; hat genius among policemen, Alphonse Bertillon, did not agree with the popular opinion of the depressingly monotonous aspect of humanity in the mass. He thought of faces in terms' of noses, mouths, ears, and foreheads. Examining the face • in this piecemeal fashionj analysing it detail by detail, he found that there were characteristics to be discovered on every face and head; which made it distinguishable from ! all others. '■ His method- is the-basis'of-the science of recognition. ’ The form of the ears is a typical illustration'. Ears are a characteristic of the individual almost as specific as the finger-prints. ' The intricate pattern of their convolutions if carefully observed will make the recognition of friends, or enemies, certain. The trained detective does not accord the face he wishes to remember the vague and polite stare we commonly bestow upon our acquaintances. Ha observes the details and memorises them. Tattoo marks on wrist or arm are ornaments which the criminal has sometimes found very inconvenient. And not criminals only, for they are sometimes the symbol merely of the extremes of human rashness. A girl came to the Laboratory of Technical Police at Lyon three years ago. She insisted upon seeing the director. On the inside of her arm the name of a man was tattooed. She was now engaged to another man. Dr she understood, was an authority on tattooing. Could be do anything for' her? Dr Locard could, and, did. .A 1 skin grafting operation, was performed, and perhaps a triangular tragedy averted. The symbol was of less importance as evidence of present identity than of past indiscretion, but the principle is the same. With this refinement of teclmiqua for recognising friend and enemy, can an individual elude recognition altogether?- The question is not so easy to answer as it used to be. Disguise in the old-fashioned sense of the beard, more or less obviously false, and the dark spectacles will not deceive the keen observer who follows the methods of M. Bertillon,. but the modern plastiq surgeon has devised methods of disguise which are much more difficult to penetrate. An operation was performed upon the gangster Dillinger remove two moles and a characteristic scar from bis face. The surgeons also tried to deface his finger-prints. He nearly died under the anaesthetic. But methods have improved. The skilled! surgeon is now able entirely to remodel a face, to reduce or increase the size of the forehead, to turn a receding into a prominent .chin, to rebuild a straight nose and produce one of the Roman type. To what extent the science of plastic surgery has been utilised by criminals is not known, but the danger has been recognised by American surgeons who have issued ai warning that a practitioner should assure himself as to the bona fides of a patient who wishes an operation of thia kind performed. But it is doubtful if the surgeon, however skilled, could remove from any individual all the marks and features by which he could bo recognised. Because of the cunning architecture of our bodies even in death and decay our identity is hot entirely lost. The musician Bach was buried in Leipzig in 1750. In 1779 the authorities wanted to translate his remains. But they could not identify the skull. A cast supposed to be that of the skull of the musician was submitted to a sculptor. The features were reconstructed on tb* basis of measurements and the shape of the cast. A recognisable image ol Bach’s face emerged. The same thing was done with even greater effioiencj by Mr Grant Williams of New York, who reconstituted the skull of-an urn known man found in a cellar which wai recognised as that of an Italian, Do minick la Rosa, who had disappeared some years before. We cannot lose our identity alto gether. It is a physically indestruo tible part of us. But identity and re cognition are not the same thing. Re cognition is the thing of everyday im portance. To become really proficient in that difficult art, we must be pro pared to take the risk and to accord our fellows something more than thq conventionally polite state.